4th Apr 2014 07:43
LONDON (Alliance News) - Matomy Media Group Ltd Friday became the first initial public offering to be pulled in London in 2014, but the recovery in the market for new issues continued as two more companies started trading on AIM for the first time.
In a statement, Tel Aviv-based Matomy Media said it had got enough demand from investors to cover the IPO size it had set, but hadn't been able to meet UK listing rules that require 25% of shares in issue to be held by investors within the European Economic Area.
"The negative share price performance and volatility in the ad-tech sector over recent weeks was an additional factor," the digital advertising company added.
In March, Matomy had said it was looking to raise about USD100 million, or GBP60 million, in its proposed IPO, money it would have used to buy up stakes in subsidiaries and a minority holding, pay down loans, potentially make acquisitions, and employ more product development staff.
Its owners had expected to sell a stake of at least 35%. Its board said it is now considering "appropriate" options.
Tekcapital PLC, which had announced its intention to float on the same day that Matomy did, saw its shares start trading Friday.
Tekcapital shares were trading at 26.45 pence in very early dealings, above its IPO price of 25 pence. It raised gross proceeds of GBP2 million in the IPO and had an initial market capitalisation of GBP5.6 million.
It will use the money to expand its sales and marketing team in an effort to accelerate sales growth, as well as developing additional technology indexing algorithms and recruiting more support staff. Some money will also go towards general working capital and to cover the costs of the IPO.
Tekcapital uses its technology to source university discoveries and intellectual property from over 3,300 universities and research institutions in over 160 counties. Its clients then use this to help innovate and protect their products or services by identifying relevant technology and intellectual property acquisition opportunities which have been developed by those universities and research institutions.
The second company to start trading on AIM Friday was Rame Energy PLC, which raised GBP2.1 million by placing 7.2 million shares at 18 pence as well as issuing GBP800,000 of convertible loan notes. It had an initial market capitalisation of GBP17.1 million.
Its shares were trading at 19.397 pence in early dealings Friday.
Rame will use the money it raised to take equity stakes in wind and other renewable energy projects in Chile and then develop them.
The company, which is focused on Chile but has ambitions to expand in South America, has power generation assets providing energy for clients including Akzo Nobel NV, Anglo American PLC, Barrick Gold and BHP Billiton PLC. It is also now working with Banco Santander's Chilean investment unit in a joint venture to develop its first two wind power sites totalling 15 megawatts. It expects the sites to be operational by the end of 2014.
It said the IPO funds will be used to take a stake in a 9 mega watt Chilean wind project, to complete technical work on two other sites with combined capacity of 84 megawatts, and to make potential investments in other energy projects.
"Subject to reinvestment of revenue from producing assets and financing, our target is to install an asset base of approximately 300 MW of energy projects over the next three years," Rame Energy Chief Executive Tim Adams said in a statement.
The London Stock Exchange is set to lose another stock. Medusa Mining Ltd, which is also listed in Australia, said Friday that it will cancel its London listing to cut costs. It expects the last day of dealings in London to be May 22.
Its London shares were down 3.8% at 104.81 pence early Friday.
By Steve McGrath; [email protected]; @SteveMcGrath1
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